Stuck at 1200 roughly

Hi,

I have been studying for the past 6 months, reading books, doing puzzles and so forth and I must be stupid but there is no progress stuck at 1200 (roughly) If I remove miscalculations, I am mostly stuck on situations like : what should I do now ?, I try to decide a plan but most of the time it is a failure : moves are just wrong according to analysis (yes I analyzed all my games).

I very rarely leave hanging pieces.

I have been reading : Michael Stean Simple chess, Nimzowitch my system, Master against  Amater (Max Euwe). I watch videos on youtube and follow teachers/pros games explained.

I stick to 2 openings : Goring Gambit (white) and  Pirc (black).

Reading means : setting up a board and playing the game and variants, and I understand what is being done, but still no progress. I also play long chess (1 day). 

I am used to study on my own, been doing this for the past 20 years on other topics with no problem, but Chess, I do not manage to make any progress.

Would a good soul have a look on my longest games and try to find the recurring wrong pattern ? 

Many thanks for your help.

For what I can see real quick, I'd say: 

- you do still make mistakes tactically and you can improve there. They say that you should always look for a better move when you see a good one. It can help to actively do that, while checking what your opponent is threatening. 

- your opening play looks pretty good, but mostly when you don't gambit with white. Playing a gambit demands active play and creating (immediate) threats, which you don't necessarily do (and which is also very difficult to do even for much stronger players). However, I really like the way you build up and put all your pieces to useful squares. If you just did that, you'd probably be ahead of the people you play. 

- I think I can also see that you weren't completely sure how to play in the middlegame. Sometimes that's part of chess. Maybe an opening like 1. d4 would make it easier to come up with middlegame ideas. With 1. d4 you get more imbalances in the position and that makes it easier for each side to have a goal. If you want to learn more about middlegame strategy and learn about imbalances, Silman's book 'How to reassess your chess" is very good. 

However, I'm also thinking more about another book that might be useful for you. A pupil of mine had a similar problem: great builder, but what to do afterwards? I think the book "Chess blueprints. Planning in the middlegame." by Yakovlev could be even more useful to you than Silman's book (that I usually recommend to everyone that will listen to me ). Hope that helps!

Thanks for the reading tips !

I will switch to D4 then and see what goes from there on white, although I have more difficulties when starting from Pirc (Black) than from Danish Gambit (White) to find a good plan/Middlegame plan.

With Black, I wanted to go away from 2/4 Knights and Italian, thus went to Pirc.

Tried Sicilian but found it too hard for now,

back to books then

Sicilian is definitely to hard even I struggle with it at times. I suggest watching some videos on openings and watch a bunch of NM-GM players play and listen to thier thoughts of how to create weaknesses and things like that.

Hi Patin, 

This is a strange feeling to study something and nothing happens in one's brain.

I suppose something must be happening, but results do not show.

I only study 30-45mn a day though, (full time job ) 

Yes, i have not done much studying yet, done some puzzles, i have used it sometimes in games and it helps. I have asked myself the same question? Do i want to play here just for fun and dont care about rating or improving. Its also ok, when you enjoy playing. But somewhere a voice in me say i like to improve, that only can be done by studying the right things i think, i also dont know right now what they exactly will be for me. Stucking at same level happens often, i saw this guy gotham, im, studying, playing, analysing a lot, was stuck for three years at same level, breakthrough came after a break? There is also a video on youtube, title why 90 of chess players never improve, with some advise, dont watch bullet games for example from hikaru, lol..

I like to think of it as an experiment on my brain.

I want to use chess as a tool to be able to put myself in "calculation mode" and going 7 moves ahead and see if there is a kind of "mental representation" of the board after these 7 moves.

I do not play to win but to make progress, I wouldn't mind losing all my games with a 90% precision of my moves

https://support.chess.com/article/437-how-do-i-get-better-at-chess

Worth looking on here for other things to help you get to the next level 👍

Ah ok, i understand, thats the reason i dont play bullet or blitz any more as an "intermediate" beginner. I made a mistake in the beginning to play to many blitz.

Did the same mistake, Now I just play bullet from time to time to check for improvement, and so far, nope

You might want to switch to an opening that battles for the center with black by directly not allowing white to gain the e4-d4 center. 1. ...c5 is good for that and it creates imbalances that make the middlegame easier to understand than after 1. e4-e5 for example. Something in me finds it interesting that you struggle in the Pirc, but think the Sicilian is too hard. I'd think the Pirc would suffer a little bit more with similar problems that you'd face when using the Dragon-variation of the Sicilian. What is it that you thought was too hard to play in the Sicilian? Maybe I can give some pointers?

i just play a guy active for four years, played 5000 plus rapid games! All the time he was between 940 and 1160 for years... Not so easy to improve. That proves to me only playing a lot of games will not improve your gameplay?

With Sicilian, I went for the dragon variation and yes you're correct, I had the same feelings as I now have with Pirc. 

I found myself after the opening in position where I told myself : ok, so what now ? everything seems pretty locked, and each time I went for some strategy with 3-4 moves ahead, I ended up with a slightly worse position or downright losing. (Explorateur d’ouvertures d’échecs - Chess.com). 

I might try to study  Sicilian or play a lot of games against computer with all helps included so that I can study consequences of variations and try to find patterns there ?  

I wouldn't study it or play with the computer. Just look for natural moves. In the position you linked to, I'd think the following: 

1. I need to castle, let's do that right now. 
2. Where do my other pieces need to go? I'd like to play for ...d5 (in any Sicilian be on the lookout for this!) but I can't make that work in this position. Better stick to Bd7 and Rc8 looks good, as it's the only half-open file I have and rooks love those. 
3. Then what? Well, Bg7 looks right down to their queenside. That b2 pawn looks a bit tender. Maybe I can try and put some pressure on it. For example (after steps 1 and 2) I might go for Nc6-e5-c4 or Nc6-Na5-c4 to attack that b2 pawn. Also notice that with the rook on c8 and the bishop on g7 and no other pieces in the way, there's already pressure on Nc3 as well. 
4. Or another idea might be to put pressure on that c2 pawn with my rook on c8. I'll have to try and dislodge that knight on c3. Maybe I can put enough pressure on it or attack it with ...a6-...b5-...b4 so that it'll have to move at some point? (Incidentally: attacking with your queenside pawns here is a version of the minority attack. It's a potent pawnplay strategy where you attack with 2 pawns against their 3, in order to leave him with just 1 hopefully vulnerable pawn when you trade some pawns. This is well known in the Queens' gambit for example, even though it usually would need a pawn weakness (like a white pawn on c3 to attack). 

When you're looking for a middlegame plan (other than just improving a piece) it's useful to look for areas where your opponent might be weak. In this position he's not weak on the Kingside, as we have no pieces pointed there and he's got a lot of defenders. The center is a little stuck, so I'd try and play on the Queenside, where he has fewer pieces. b2 and c2 would need some defending: b2 is unguarded as is and c2 is a pawn on the half-open file, so it's always a little bit weak. And with experience, the plans start forming almost by themselves. 

I know! It is quite hard to implement everything you have learned in books into your games. Just always look for tactics, and look for some good positional chess books. (Positional can mean strategic play i.e making a plan.) How to Reassess Your Chess is an excellent book. Look at all sides of the board. If the opponent’s king is exposed, try to go for it, and sacrifice if necessary. If you are ahead in material, the easiest way to win is to trade into an endgame. If your king is exposed, castle as soon as possible (if it is safe)!

i dont know, i know one thing, its not so easy to improve, use different openings? I dont know. Practise tactis, in middle games i dont know, use some theory in endgames? Its never one thing.

Improving Your Chess - Resources for Beginners and Beyond...

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/improving-your-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond